Raja Dharma Jala, the accused(HT Photo)

The Bhoiwada police recently arrested a 24-year-old youth for kidnapping a one-year-old boy from Parel.

The accused has been identified as Raja Dharma Jala, who is a resident of Sewri.

The police said the accused didn’t intend to harm the child, and wanted to take care of him. The accused in his statement said that he kidnapped the child to evade his loneliness.

The accused kidnapped the boy around 1.30am on Sunday, when the child’s mother had gone out to buy something.

An officer from Bhoiwada police station said, “The boy was sleeping, and as the woman wanted to buy something, she kept him on a bench. The accused then quietly fled with the boy.”

The mother then looked for the boy in the entire area but as she couldn’t locate him, she reported the matter to the police. A case was registered and a team was formed to rescue the one-year-old.

An officer said, “We started hunting for the child, and also distributed pictures of the victim among our informers.”

On Sunday afternoon, the police got information that the boy was spotted in Sewri with a young man. Following this, a team was dispatched and the boy was rescued. The accused was brought to the police station and later arrested.

Senior police inspector Dattatrey Patil from Bhoiwada police station confirmed the arrest and said, “The accused has been remanded to judicial custody.”

The accused has been booked under section 363 (punishment for kidnaping) of the Indian Penal Code.